The official blog for singer, writer, director and human rights advocate Aisha and her affiliated web sites.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

R&B Group TLC Slammed On Twitter For Collecting $430,000 In Donations For An Album That Has Not Materialized

TLC's Kickstarter page reveals
4,201 people donated $430,255 for the group to make its last
album

Atlanta R&B duo, TLC, was slammed and mocked on the social
networking website Twitter this past Sunday, for soliciting
donations for an album that has not materialized. In January of
this year, TLC promised an album by October 2015, which as you
can tell, was last month. A fan asked
TLC member T-Boz about his money ($5) and the album and she told
him to call Kickstarter and get his money back (LOL).

The group used Kickstarter to collect $430,000, which is a
significant amount of money to raise on said site. It set a
record for raising the sum in two days. However,
nearly one year has past and the album has not been released. There
are indications the CD has not even been made yet, as there has
been no real news on the songs being recorded. For $430,000 rapper Chief Keef could make 430,000 albums
(I’m kidding). Not to mention, Chief Keef‘s music
videos don’t cost more than 99 cents each to make, but he became
a millionaire anyway (LOL).

The tweet that triggered the trouble and resulted in a #TLCisGoingToJailParty
hashtag on Twitter that saw the group made funny of in hilarious
ways

After yesterday’s problems, TLC announced an album will be
released next year. TLC’s last album, 2002’s “3D” did not fare
well on the charts or in sales. Since the 2002 death of former
group member, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who died in a car accident,
their sales have plummeted. The public has not gotten used to
the idea of TLC being a duo, after achieving multi-platinum
success as a trio.

Times have also changed since TLC’s last successful CD,
1999’s “Fan Mail.” Due to advances in technology, it’s easy to
make an album now for $430,000 (you could make more than one for
that figure). However, the caliber of producers TLC are used to
working with will still charge $250,000 to $500,000 per song.
The average album contains at least 10 songs, so this poses a
slight problem. TLC will have to find new producers, who charge
far less…or give the project to one of their former producers,
such as Jermaine Dupri, who is broke and bankrupt and might do
the whole project for $200,000. However, Dupri hasn’t had a hit
in a long time and was sued several times for copyright
infringement.

TLC

During TLC’s hay day, the music industry was booming in the
sales department. TLC’s top album “CrazySexyCool” sold over
10,000,000 copies in America and 20,000,000 worldwide. That does
not happen anymore. The American public has turned off the music
industry in the United States. The music industry in America is
now a shell of its former self in terms of business and
creativity. Albums that go number one in America now often sell
50,000 copies in their debut week, when CDs used to sell 500,000
to 1,000,000 in that same time frame a decade prior.

Another noted change is the quality of music has greatly
declined. Many artists that have been signed to deals do not
have talent. They were signed for looks and nothing else.
Another issue is many artists, songwriters and producers are
stealing music and the public in turn are refraining from
buying, opting to download songs for free on illegal sites. Hey,
you lead by example.

New independent artists are making albums for $5,000 (in some
cases less) but they do all the work themselves or in tandem
with hungry new producers, who are willing to accept less money
up front with the hope of receiving greater royalties
constituting the real money if the project is a success.

Chilli blocked me on
Twitter when
I've never tried to speak to her nor have I ever been following
her on the site

Side Bar: As Twitter slammed and made fun of TLC
yesterday, I went to the ladies pages to see their reaction.
There was not much of one on T-Boz’s page (Tionne Watkins). However, I discovered
yesterday that Chilli (Rozanda Thomas) has blocked me (I
couldn't stop laughing). However, I had never asked her a
question on Twitter or followed her account. My only encounter
with any member of TLC was in a Miami mall when T-Boz and then
boyfriend Dalvin of Jodeci stared me in the face like they knew
me.

It is
strange (Chilli) to block someone who is not contacting you and
I haven't contacted them in any way. The whole
thing stems from me trying to uplift TLC’s former manager,
Pebbles (Perri Reid), who is now a Christian minister that was
savaged in their biopic and online. I also tweeted at Pebbles on Twitter
to clear up a false
story online by a man claiming to be her secret son, which I did
not believe to be true, as she is a woman who proudly
shows off her kids to the public. Pebbles responded and cleared
up the story. Chilli has me off for that as she still has
animosity towards Pebbles.

Chilli also has me off
for writing about her affair with Pebbles’ ex-husband, former LaFace Records co-owner, L.A. Reid
(I met Reid's cousin in Atlanta years ago through a good friend
and she told me some things, nothing that betrayed him, just the
facts that were a bit sad and it had to do with his cheating
during his marriage to Pebbles). I didn’t agree with what Chilli did in that she edged out former
TLC member Crystal Lewis by
having sex with L.A. Reid, behind Pebbles’ back, which got her
placed in the group, in what was a
betrayal of the woman who made her famous (Pebbles). That must
have been very hurtful.

I know they all had their disputes with each other, but
Pebbles was blamed for everything, when Clive Davis is the one
who received the lion’s share of the money (the group figured it
out later and held him at gunpoint in his New York office
demanding their money). Now the deal Pebbles gave TLC is common
in the American music industry, yet she was vilified for it by
the group. Here’s hoping one day they will all make
peace with each other. Life is too short for all the strife.

Side Bar 2: Chilli, for blocking me when I didn‘t even
tweet at you, may your baby hairs never lay flat on your
forehead again. To my readers: trust me, for one black woman to
say that to another, it’s a terrible insult (LOL). It’s like one
white woman telling another white woman, may you never enjoy
another Starbucks again!

Nov 2 2015, 8:17am - At the top of year, TLC launched a
Kickstarter to raise money for a new album. They easily reached
their goal but that album? Yeah, it never happened. They could
be taking their time here. It’s easy to throw an album together
after you raised over $430,000 from fans, but maybe they want to
give you your money’s worth? At the same time, it probably
doesn’t help that T-Boz flipped on a fan for trying to get a
refund. The response was #TLCisGoingToJailParty, a hashtag born
from anguish, and pure hilarity. TLC is now promising a new
album next year.